The Right Fit

As we are inclined to do when on vacation, Emily and I speculated about what life might be like if we lived here on Topsail Island as we walked down the beach this morning. "You could be a turtle monitor," she suggested to me, "and walk the beach every morning looking for turtle tracks. That seems like something you would like."

I nodded in agreement. "I could also look for shell letters every day, and keep them sorted into 26 piles for future spelling projects," I laughed, stooping to examine a zigzaggy piece of coral. 

"You could have a little Etsy shop and take orders for custom signs," she said. "And maybe even branch out to other collections: woodlands, fields, you know."

"That would be fun! Maybe I could source my materials from specific locations, too. Then I could travel!" I replied, turning the coral over in my hand thoughtfully. "Does this look like an S to you?" I asked.

"Maybe," Emily answered skeptically, "if you turn it the right way? It all depends on the context."

"That's very true," I agreed and tossed it aside as we continued on in companionable silence, each scanning the sand for our own sort of treasure.

Shell Games

While the weather here, for the most part, has been lovely, especially for November, as much time as we have spent walking the beach we have found the beachcombing to be a bit underwhelming. Although on the first morning, I found a whole sea biscuit and we did find those two shark teeth, the rest of our finds have been broken shells, bits of coral, and quartz stones. 

Rarely one content to simply walk, however, I set myself a project: to find broken shells, stones, and coral in the shapes of the letters of my name. That occupied one walk the other day, and I was pleased with the results, even if my brother did say it looks more like Tracky than Tracey.

This morning when we woke to blue skies and warm sunshine after the all-day deluge of yesterday, we decided to skip the parade and head for the beach instead. Today my project was more ambitious and fitting for the holiday; I searched for the letters to spell Thanksgiving. And a couple of hours later, with the help of everyone, I had a pocket full of options and optimism. 

Call it confirmation bias, but once again I was plenty satisfied with my efforts (especially after turning that e into a k), even after Treat posted Happy Planksgiving! to our family chat.

UPDATE: As if cooking and puzzling were not enough, we have also been tweaking the message this afternoon.

Fancy

"I'll have the "Fancy Grilled Cheese"," Heidi said as she scanned the menu at the sandwich shop. "I don't know what it is, but how could any grilled cheese be bad?"

A little while later we sat at an outdoor picnic table and unwrapped our sandwiches. Heidi examined hers skeptically. "Is this rye bread?" she asked before taking a bite. Her nose wrinkled and she set her sandwich down. "It is rye bread and there is also bacon and relish." She sighed. "I guess this is the grilled cheese that proved me wrong."

On the way back to the beach house we passed a place advertising fancy sushi. "Let's not," Heidi said.

They Have Those Here?

"I saw a postcard in that gift shop yesterday that showed how to identify shark teeth," Emily mentioned as we were walking down the beach this morning. The tide had just turned and we were examining the scatter of mostly broken shells and shiny quartz drops. "I wonder if that means they have them here."

"I keep seeing things that seem like they could be," I noted, "but they just turn out to be shell hinges or some other fragment."

Just then Bill leaned down and plucked a small black triangle from the sand. "Here's a real one!" he said. 

And then a few steps down the beach something shiny and black caught my eye. It was another shark tooth! 

"I guess that answers that," Emily said.

Gesundheit

Is sneezing a symptom of COVID? I wondered as I achooed for the fourth time in a row. 

Alone in my room, I wiped my snotty nose and squirted some hand sanitizer on my palm before grabbing my phone to research the question. A quick Google informed me that, yes, sneezing has been recently added to the documented symptoms of COVID-19, but only for people who have been vaccinated. 

Yet another strange twist in the pathology of this ever-so-disruptive virus.

Family Support

Sitting in the car waiting for Heidi to finish the grocery shopping, I watched a huge pickup truck slowly back into a parking space a little ways down from me. The driver maneuvered the big vehicle slowly but accurately until I heard the crank of an emergency brake and the engine shut down. Out of the truck tumbled two tall young men, a burly guy who was likely their dad, and a smiling woman I took as their mom. 

"Great parking job, Kaia!" one of them practically rejoiced.

"You sure got it in there," the dad agreed.

I craned my neck to see a teenage girl emerging from the driver's seat, grinning proudly.

One of her brothers high-fived her, and her mom gave her a hug. "Nice parking job!" she told Kaia.

And then the five of them happily headed into the grocery store.

Double Deep

I've had a lot of strange dreams in my life, but last night was a first: in my dreams I kept falling asleep! 

It was that type of nodding off where when the people around you ask if you're sleeping, you blearily snap to, insisting that you. are. AWAKE! 

But I wasn't awake, even when I was awake.